Amazon MOD titles actually pressed in some cases

I've long-avoided MOD titles - the general lower quality and shorter expected lifespan irk me as a collector, so I've generally decided to hold off for pressed discs (either by eventual Shout/Mill Creek acquisition, a foreign release, or maybe a Blu-ray one day). However, it seems that, in at least some small number of cases, Amazon is shipping pressed discs.

The only one I've seen proof of is the Doug: The Complete Series set. People in the Nickelodean thread here have commented on it, and someone was nice enough to upload pictures in the DVD subsection over at blu-ray.com. Yet DVD-Rs for this also exist, and there is no way that I am aware of to tell the difference. Someone also reported that their copies of Bob's Burgers season 2, 3, and 4 were pressed discs, though I have not seen copies to verify that.

Does anyone have more information on this? I would definitely purchase some long-coveted titles if I knew they were pressed...

But in my experience, they don't even do preorders for MOD titles - usually they just appear one day without any notice. Perhaps if early orders are at a high enough rate, THEN they press some - that would explain what happened with Doug. But is this common, or is that an extreme outlier? I haven't heard much of anything about this happening at all, so was really surprised to see proof of the Doug pressed DVDs.

Sometimes they run targeted campaigns around discounted MOD titles. When Doug was discounted to $12.99 for a period, it was pressed in anticipation of demand. Around Christmas, a number of FOX MOD titles were reduced heavily (~50% off) - they pressed a number of these around this period too (off-hand I recall the copy of American Dad Vol 10 I bought during this period being pressed)

I've heard of a couple of titles listed as mod being pressed on their initial release, such as Almost Human S1, but I only heard about it well after their release, when the stock may or may not have already been depleted. I e-mailed them asking about it, but they never replied.

I wish there was a way to know, as there are about 60 titles I have interest in buying if I knew that they were pressed. The Fox titles are Witches of East End S2, Graceland S2, Rush S1, Crisis S1, Friends with Better Lives S1, and Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 The Complete Series.

In case Wezzo or anyone else knows if any of these were pressed and still might be available? Or any resource that might help us for any future situations like the Fox one during Christmas?

I've heard of a couple of titles listed as mod being pressed on their initial release, such as Almost Human S1, but I only heard about it well after their release, when the stock may or may not have already been depleted. I e-mailed them asking about it, but they never replied.

I wish there was a way to know, as there are about 60 titles I have interest in buying if I knew that they were pressed. The Fox titles are Witches of East End S2, Graceland S2, Rush S1, Crisis S1, Friends with Better Lives S1, and Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 The Complete Series.

In case Wezzo or anyone else knows if any of these were pressed and still might be available? Or any resource that might help us for any future situations like the Fox one during Christmas?

Almost Human is a Warner Archive title, and WB themselves presses the first batch of multi-disc sets (i.e., TV seasons and multi-film collections like Forbidden Hollywood volumes). For that, you have to order directly from the Warner Archive site, as they handle that internally. The Warner Archive titles from Amazon and other sites are (to the best of my knowledge) always burned. Though maybe Amazon is choosing to press limited amounts of those to at their own discretion, who knows.

Amazon doing that for Fox MOD titles is super interesting to me because Fox themselves does not give a crap, so this seems like the only way to get pressed discs of these releases. I have Doug and the Bob's Burgers seasons on order, so I'll know soon enough if those are still pressed. Any information on other titles would be greatly appreciated - Louie, Wilfred, and Crisis in particular.

Almost Human is a Warner Archive title, and WB themselves presses the first batch of multi-disc sets (i.e., TV seasons and multi-film collections like Forbidden Hollywood volumes). For that, you have to order directly from the Warner Archive site, as they handle that internally. The Warner Archive titles from Amazon and other sites are (to the best of my knowledge) always burned. Though maybe Amazon is choosing to press limited amounts of those to at their own discretion, who knows.

Amazon doing that for Fox MOD titles is super interesting to me because Fox themselves does not give a crap, so this seems like the only way to get pressed discs of these releases. I have Doug and the Bob's Burgers seasons on order, so I'll know soon enough if those are still pressed. Any information on other titles would be greatly appreciated - Louie, Wilfred, and Crisis in particular.

I never knew that about Warner Archive titles, and had only heard it about Almost Human, thanks very much!

I wish that I could be of assistance on any other titles, but I've only ordered 1 once in my life, when I didn't understand what it was, which was Jeremiah S2 many years ago.

I just placed an Amazon order yesterday, so I hadn't planned to do so again very soon, but I'll think over whether I might take a chance on one of the other titles I mentioned, in case there might still be pressed copies left over from what Wezzo mentioned. I wish I had known at the time. Ah well.

I am reasonably sure that some/most of the Warner Archive early-pressed titles (as well as first-run TCM sets) have also been sent out to places like DVDPlanet and DeepDiscount, so early orders through those site can also result in pressed discs. Don't WA and other boxes supposedly indicate whether the discs are MOD or not...?

According to CamelCamelCamel, the sale was from around December 19 to December 31, so unless they seriously overestimated demand for a title at the time, I'd say chances are low of getting a pressed version.

Some of the shows are available in different regions, pressed, if you have a multi-region DVD player (American Dad in Australia, Wilfred in the UK).

This is a longshot but - do you have any DVD-R Amazon/Fox titles that you can compare to, to see if there are any noticeable differences in the outer packaging (absence or presence of the official DVD-Video logo, UPC style, etc.)?

I did just set Camelcamelcamel to email me about any future drastic price drops - maybe Amazon will do this again in the future.

All of my other Amazon/Fox MOD titles have "Manufactured by Amazon.com kydc, Lexington, KY" above the bar code/UPC - but this one doesn't. I hadn't noticed before as I sometimes get Fox MODs from ImportCDs too, and they don't have that indicator, regardless of whether it's pressed or burned.

That'd be great news if it weren't for the fact that other outlets besides Amazon can sell these too haha.

So Fox must create the DVD authorings and let companies enter a deal with them to actually produce discs and distribute them. Amazon is one such company, and they alternate between burning (usually) and pressing (occasionally).

There is some Willette Acquisition Corp. that also deals with Fox, and their discs are what you can buy from Target, Best Buy, Walmart, ImportCDs, DVDEmpire, etc. - I've always assumed these are always burned, but who knows. You'd think if they're distributing to all these places that it would make sense to replicate pressed discs in 500-count batches, but clearly they don't think so... Does anyone have any info to the contrary, i.e., you've purchased these Fox MOD titles from non-Amazon retailers and gotten pressed discs?

I imagine most of the 3rd party resellers on Amazon and eBay have gotten their stock from Willette. The Amazon pressed discs are probably mostly in end consumer's hands, meaning it'll be super tough to find these.

After this discussion I spoke/chatted with Amazon Cust. Service, who was very earnest and promised me that all the Fox titles are DVD's and not DVD-R's (after putting me on-hold multiple times to check with others). I asked about sending a note to the shipping dept. to look for the difference in barcodes that Wezzo showed in his pics (and thanks for those!), but the rep. insisted that was unnecessary. I took that info with several grains of salt, but he promised me a full refund on the titles and shipping if DVD-R's arrived instead of DVD's.

Given that offer, I stretched the budget and ordered 3 with him (Witches Of East End Season 2, Graceland Season 2 and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23: The Complete Series). The first two were shipped together more slowly and Don't Trust the B arrived first. Here's what I found.

Don't Trust the B was wrapped in cellophane with the folded corners (which seemed promising), but it had the "Manufactured by Amazon.com kydc, Lexington, KY" above the bar code/UPC just like Wezzo mentioned. I had had a long day, and mistakenly recalled the opposite of what Wezzo had said (that the "Manufactured" writing meant that I should avoid this one), so I went ahead and opened it. The discs were purple and had a barcode on them. I randomly chose Disc 3 and the specs said:

In another conversation somewhere else I think I recall someone mentioning that pressed discs have a higher capacity of 8 GB while burned ones are at 4 GB. Obviously that was not the case here, as this set seems very much a DVD-R but still well over 6 GB.

Then Witches Of East End Season 2 and Graceland Season 2 arrived. These were clearly different. Neither had the "Manufactured by Amazon.com kydc, Lexington, KY" writing, and no writing at all in the barcode other than the UPC number. Both were in shrinkwrap. HOWEVER, the shrink had "Made in Mexico" stamped in purple on the back of the shrink, just like many pressed titles do (and Don't Trust didn't). Upon opening them, I found all the discs to lack barcodes and all were silver. I don't know if I should be 100% certain that these were pressed, but all the signs are great. I also scanned the 3rd discs of each of these 2 sets:

I don't know if there's some other test I can do to be sure that the last 2 are pressed? If not, I'll proceed on the assumption that they are.

So for Fox TV titles Amazon currently has some that are pressed and some that are DVD-R's as we'd thought. I shared bevilacq12's worry that all would be sold out by now, but for however long, for whatever reason, that's not yet the case. My advice for those trying to obtain them would be to try to ask customer service first, and hope that you can get a rep. as nice and flexible enough to make a similar offer as the one he did to me (But don't then mistakenly open the one that you should be returning *sigh*).

Even if such a cust. service deal doesn't happen, it might be worth taking a gamble anyway, as we can still return them unopened if we're willing to pay shipping. In my case, with a 2/3 success rate then I paid $72.53 (which would have been less if I'd paid attention). Definitely not a bargain price, but I'm very happy to get these two very much wanted titles pressed. Thanks again to everyone who's posted helpful info in this thread.

I don't know how long any of these pressed Fox titles will still be around, and will try to order more as soon as I can, which will probably not be for at least another few weeks. The Fox titles I'm still interested in are Rush S1, Friends with Better Lives S1, The Crazy Ones S1 and Crisis S1 (I know that this is one of those bevilacq12 wanted to hear back on, but unfortunately it is down on my list of wants and I had to try the 3 that I did, sorry).

I hope that this info is helpful and would love to hear if anyone else has more info, whether on Fox titles or anyone else's.

Sounds like you have Dual-Layer DVD-Rs, which have twice the capacity of Single-Layer DVD-Rs (~4GB).

So, DVD-Rs can be not only 4GB, but 8GB as well.

Thanks. That would only be for the Don't Trust the B discs right? Given all the differences between those and the other two titles, then they seem more likely to be pressed. But do you if there's a way to know for certain?

It definitely sounds like Don't Trust The B---- is a DVD-R and the other two (Graceland and Witches of East End) are pressed DVD-ROMs. The color of the discs is a dead giveaway usually, and everything else you've said is consistent. It seems that "Manufactured by Amazon" being above the UPC indicates burned DVD-R and the absence of that means pressed DVD-ROM (though only when purchasing directly from Amazon - the Willette Acquisition Group copies, which you'd get if you ordered from Best Buy, Walmart, etc. are always DVD-R but don't have the "Manufactured by Amazon" text for obvious reasons).

I wouldn't bother checking the sizes. Dual-layer DVD-Rs definitely exist. Not as common, but they are definitely used. The free software Nero CD-DVD Speed will tell you if it's a DVD-ROM or DVD-R definitively (on the 3rd tab I believe).

So yes, it definitely seems that Amazon pressed a fairly wide selection of Fox discs for their sale last December, and they also pressed copies of Doug for an earlier sale. I've yet to see any other non-Fox titles besides Doug, but it's possible.

Fairly good results all around, though Bob's Burgers season 4 being DVD-R kills me because Bob's Burgers is one of my all-time favorite shoes and I know from other forums that pressed versions of season 4 definitely exist. If anyone has these and would be willing to sell them, please please contact me .

For others like You're The Worst and Don't Trust The B----, it's hard to know if pressed ones existed and sold out or if they just never pressed any for those. There's also the issue of warehouse locations - I imagine Amazon would ship a copy from the closest warehouse regardless of whether there were still pressed copies at a farther warehouse. I didn't even try for American Dad as that had a very high sales rank during the sale (according to camelcamelcamel) so I expect that those pressed copies have already sold out (though it's possible Amazon pressed a lot more for those since they would have known that the baseline sales for American Dad are higher too - who knows!). I did just place another order for The Crazy Ones, Salem season 1, and Wilfred seasons 3 and 4, so I'll report back about those.

All around very frustrating. I wish Amazon would announce which releases they give a limited run of pressed discs for during the sale - it would help us collectors keep track, and I imagine it would spur their sales even higher.

It definitely sounds like Don't Trust The B---- is a DVD-R and the other two (Graceland and Witches of East End) are pressed DVD-ROMs. The color of the discs is a dead giveaway usually, and everything else you've said is consistent. It seems that "Manufactured by Amazon" being above the UPC indicates burned DVD-R and the absence of that means pressed DVD-ROM (though only when purchasing directly from Amazon - the Willette Acquisition Group copies, which you'd get if you ordered from Best Buy, Walmart, etc. are always DVD-R but don't have the "Manufactured by Amazon" text for obvious reasons).

Thanks for the reply and all the analysis bevilacq12. I was curious if any of the other factors I mentioned lined up for you too, beyond the "Manufactured by Amazon" text, i.e. the pressed discs being in shrinkwrap with the "Made in Mexico" and not having barcodes on the discs, while the DVD-R's had cellophane, no "MiM" stamp and barcodes on their discs?

When ordering from Amazon then the "Manufactured by Amazon" above the barcode may be the sole indicator needed to tell the difference, but as you say, I'd love to try to know all the signs in case any of us ever order from someone else. It will be great to know just by looking at them, and possibly return them unopened (at our cost of course), without having to unwrap them.

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I wouldn't bother checking the sizes. Dual-layer DVD-Rs definitely exist. Not as common, but they are definitely used. The free software Nero CD-DVD Speed will tell you if it's a DVD-ROM or DVD-R definitively (on the 3rd tab I believe).

Thanks, though I'm on a Mac (which doesn't have a PC option) and I believe that Nero only works for a PC. After some investigating I tried using Quick Time, but that didn't tell me. I'll investigate more later, unless anyone knows a good program in lieu of Nero for Mac?

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So yes, it definitely seems that Amazon pressed a fairly wide selection of Fox discs for their sale last December, and they also pressed copies of Doug for an earlier sale. I've yet to see any other non-Fox titles besides Doug, but it's possible.

Fairly good results all around, though Bob's Burgers season 4 being DVD-R kills me because Bob's Burgers is one of my all-time favorite shoes and I know from other forums that pressed versions of season 4 definitely exist. If anyone has these and would be willing to sell them, please please contact me .

5/7 are definitely good results, congratulations! I understand about Bob's Burgers being one of your favorites, though at least you got 2 more pressed Seasons. Perhaps you might try contacting cust. service prior to placing another order, in the hopes of getting a rep. as understanding as mine? Or one that might insert a note to the shipping dept. (if that's possible)?

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For others like You're The Worst and Don't Trust The B----, it's hard to know if pressed ones existed and sold out or if they just never pressed any for those. There's also the issue of warehouse locations - I imagine Amazon would ship a copy from the closest warehouse regardless of whether there were still pressed copies at a farther warehouse. I didn't even try for American Dad as that had a very high sales rank during the sale (according to camelcamelcamel) so I expect that those pressed copies have already sold out (though it's possible Amazon pressed a lot more for those since they would have known that the baseline sales for American Dad are higher too - who knows!). I did just place another order for The Crazy Ones, Salem season 1, and Wilfred seasons 3 and 4, so I'll report back about those.

Yeah, it's impossible to know for sure if pressed discs were created unless someone reports them. As you say, certain titles may not have been included in the sale or they might have built up a small supply of DVD-R's where they felt that that would be sufficient and no pressing as needed. And different warehouses might have, or have had, different allocations of these.

Good luck to you on your new order, I'll definitely look forward to your results on those titles, especially The Crazy Ones.

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All around very frustrating. I wish Amazon would announce which releases they give a limited run of pressed discs for during the sale - it would help us collectors keep track, and I imagine it would spur their sales even higher.

I agree, though my guess is that they don't want to draw too much attention to this, so as the people who are happily buying the DVD-R's don't start questioning them. Unfortunate for us, but I'm just glad that you posted and we've found out what we have on the Fox (and WB multi-disc sets in my case) titles.

Thanks for the reply and all the analysis bevilacq12. I was curious if any of the other factors I mentioned lined up for you too, beyond the "Manufactured by Amazon" text, i.e. the pressed discs being in shrinkwrap with the "Made in Mexico" and not having barcodes on the discs, while the DVD-R's had cellophane, no "MiM" stamp and barcodes on their discs?

When ordering from Amazon then the "Manufactured by Amazon" above the barcode may be the sole indicator needed to tell the difference, but as you say, I'd love to try to know all the signs in case any of us ever order from someone else. It will be great to know just by looking at them, and possibly return them unopened (at our cost of course), without having to unwrap them.

I suppose that all makes sense. The DVD-Rs are being manufactured one-at-a-time or in very small batches in some Amazon warehouse, so it makes sense that those would not have MiM, while presumably Amazon contracted the pressed discs out to a Mexican replicator (which is common for retail pressed DVDs and BDs). That could change in the future so the absence of MiM might not always indicate DVD-R, but the presence of MiM SHOULD indicate pressed discs. But the "Manufactured by Amazon" above the barcode seems a much better method of testing.

As for the barcodes on the disc, I'm not sure. I returned my DVD-R sets so I don't have any on-hand to look at, but my pressed ones don't seem to have any barcodes. But to see this, you already have to have opened the set, so it's much easier to look at the bottom of the disc.

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Thanks, though I'm on a Mac (which doesn't have a PC option) and I believe that Nero only works for a PC. After some investigating I tried using Quick Time, but that didn't tell me. I'll investigate more later, unless anyone knows a good program in lieu of Nero for Mac?

I just did some Google-ing and could not find anything. Perhaps the built-in Disc Utility app? I think there is little disc-focused software for Mac since so few Macs even come with disc drives anymore... I know I used Boot Camp + Windows + Nero when my sole computer was a Mac.

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5/7 are definitely good results, congratulations! I understand about Bob's Burgers being one of your favorites, though at least you got 2 more pressed Seasons. Perhaps you might try contacting cust. service prior to placing another order, in the hopes of getting a rep. as understanding as mine? Or one that might insert a note to the shipping dept. (if that's possible)?

In my experience, the customer service reps have next to no knowledge of the actual product and no power over the fulfillment process (which is backed up by your experience where he assured you that no DVD-Rs were sold and then you did receive a DVD-R).

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Yeah, it's impossible to know for sure if pressed discs were created unless someone reports them. As you say, certain titles may not have been included in the sale or they might have built up a small supply of DVD-R's where they felt that that would be sufficient and no pressing as needed. And different warehouses might have, or have had, different allocations of these.

Good luck to you on your new order, I'll definitely look forward to your results on those titles, especially The Crazy Ones.

All four recent purchases were pressed (Crazy Ones, Salem s1, Wilfred s3-4). The fact that some really unpopular titles like Crisis, Salem, and Graceland received pressed discs makes me think that ALL Fox titles included in the sale received pressed discs. I could be wrong, but that's my gut feeling. The oddities surrounding which have sold out already and what their sales ranks were during the time period since the sale could just be related to Amazon misjudging how many to press for individual titles.

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Originally Posted by orangerunner

Whenever DVDs and CDs are pressed, there is always a 10% over/under-run allowable.

In the case of a six-disc set, there is never a perfectly equal number of each disc during a press run.

The inconsistencies probably have to do with having leftover pressed discs of say 2, 3 & 5 and then having to burn 1, 4 & 6 to make a complete set.

Eventually, they will be making sets with only one pressed disc until those are all used up and then they start running the set as DVD-R only.

I don't know what this has to do with anything. No one is receiving mixed sets, and the pressed discs are manufactured and shrinkwrapped in Mexico while the DVD-Rs are being burnt in Amazon facilities in the states, so it would be odd for the stocks to even cross paths until they were all already assembled and shrinkwrapped. Amazon presumably ordered X amount per title from a Mexican replicator, and the replicator delivered those X. Any odd numbers of extra discs would presumably be handled by the replicator and never actually affect Amazon.

I suppose that all makes sense. The DVD-Rs are being manufactured one-at-a-time or in very small batches in some Amazon warehouse, so it makes sense that those would not have MiM, while presumably Amazon contracted the pressed discs out to a Mexican replicator (which is common for retail pressed DVDs and BDs). That could change in the future so the absence of MiM might not always indicate DVD-R, but the presence of MiM SHOULD indicate pressed discs. But the "Manufactured by Amazon" above the barcode seems a much better method of testing.

Okay. I was unclear if we had established that the "Manufactured by Amazon" text above the barcode was a 100% indicator. If it is (and you now have much more experience than I) then you're definitely right about that being the easiest way to establish a disc's bona fides, and I'll just proceed based on that.

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As for the barcodes on the disc, I'm not sure. I returned my DVD-R sets so I don't have any on-hand to look at, but my pressed ones don't seem to have any barcodes. But to see this, you already have to have opened the set, so it's much easier to look at the bottom of the disc.

No problem at all. If you still had them, or remembered, then as said, that would have been another factor. But since you don't, and we don't seem to need anything else anyway, then obviously we can disregard this.

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I just did some Google-ing and could not find anything. Perhaps the built-in Disc Utility app? I think there is little disc-focused software for Mac since so few Macs even come with disc drives anymore... I know I used Boot Camp + Windows + Nero when my sole computer was a Mac.

Thanks very much for looking into it! I know that I should get around to running Windows on my Mac too, and as soon as I get around to it then I'll just use the free Nero. Although it sounds like we've pretty well established that the "Manufactured by Amazon" text is an adequate sign.

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In my experience, the customer service reps have next to no knowledge of the actual product and no power over the fulfillment process (which is backed up by your experience where he assured you that no DVD-Rs were sold and then you did receive a DVD-R).

I figure that it never hurts to ask, and it could happen that we get someone who knows what they're talking about. Plus, if I hadn't been careless enough to open the DVD-R then I would have had a decent argument about returning it.

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All four recent purchases were pressed (Crazy Ones, Salem s1, Wilfred s3-4). The fact that some really unpopular titles like Crisis, Salem, and Graceland received pressed discs makes me think that ALL Fox titles included in the sale received pressed discs. I could be wrong, but that's my gut feeling. The oddities surrounding which have sold out already and what their sales ranks were during the time period since the sale could just be related to Amazon misjudging how many to press for individual titles.

Wow, congratulations again! Can't ask for better than that, and of course that's great for your overall success rate with this. Thanks especially for listing the titles, and I need to get on The Crazy Ones as soon as I can. I wish we all had known about this when the titles were cheaper and/or I could have saved up to order them all asap. But still, this has been a greatly helpful thread and I'm very thankful for every pressed title I can get.

You could well be right about Fox pressing all their titles for year-end. At this point I think there are enough factors that it's impossible to say for sure, but I'm just glad that there are some still there for us. Meanwhile, I probably won't order and then receive more for another 3-4 weeks, but I'll absolutely report back on the results then.

The last couple of Fox discs I tried last year were DVD-R's, but I took a chance recently on Fox's Tyrant Season 2, hoping they would press some again for the holidays, and it looks pressed. The barcode was much smaller and it was shrinked rather than in cellophane, but the shrink says "Made in Mexico", and the discs are silver.

Anyone have any recent luck with this? I got 3 new titles in the Christmas 2017 sale that were pressed (You're The Worst seasons 1 and 2 and It's Always Sunny season 11), but I haven't even seen any real sales this Christmas 2018 season. With Fox going MOD more and more (it's unbelievable some of the series they're doing it with now...), I was really looking forward to this Amazon trend continuing.